Computer: Locked out with no account

[Psychonaut 0]

Quick rundown,

Have a pc running XP, already joined to a domain.
The pc is moving labs and buildings and therefore we change the name to follow our building/room scheme. I can't simply rename it without removing it from the domain and rejoining it since it already has an account.

So, I remove it from the domain, restart, and realize I need to log in locally but never checked to see what the local account(s) were. Anyway to get into it? Trying to avoid a reinstall at all costs, XP blows..

Edit: These pc's are from the stoneage and therefore don't have our current admin user/pw that we use on all computers.

Stay high pull low

[beowulf 1]

Why couldn't you just rename with out removing it from the domain??

I can do that all day long on my domain?

btw with out a valid admin account password you will need to hack the computer using something like ERD commander.

[pinkfairy 0]

Tricky one.

Have you talked to your friendly, local system administrator?

They set up the computer in the first place, so they will know the ins and outs of it. There will often be a local administrator account that you can use, and the people who set up the computer will know what that is.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

[Psychonaut 0]

Quote

Why couldn't you just rename with out removing it from the domain??

I can do that all day long on my domain?

btw with out a valid admin account password you will need to hack the computer using something like ERD commander.

You can do that if the account wasn't already created, but it was.

Pinkfairy, I am one of the admins. Normally we would have a local admin account set on the PC's; we do that when we get new pc's in or mess with those already in the building; these however came from another building, we're using them as we're scrounging around for a few extra grad student computers.

Stay high pull low

[bwilling 0]

Try this

"If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

[Bolas 5]

I used this recently and was quite impressed.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Parted Magic not only had tools to reset passwords, it could read the files and the registry too.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[theonlyski 3]

Quote

Quick rundown,

Have a pc running XP, already joined to a domain.
The pc is moving labs and buildings and therefore we change the name to follow our building/room scheme. I can't simply rename it without removing it from the domain and rejoining it since it already has an account.

So, I remove it from the domain, restart, and realize I need to log in locally but never checked to see what the local account(s) were. Anyway to get into it? Trying to avoid a reinstall at all costs, XP blows..

Edit: These pc's are from the stoneage and therefore don't have our current admin user/pw that we use on all computers.

Remotely telnet into said computer as an domain admin (might have to re-enable telnet in remote computer management)

net user (someusername) (somepassword) /add
net localgroup Administrators (someusername) /add

That creates the (someusername) account on the local machine, and adds it to the administrators group.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[likestojump 3]

Quote

Quote

Quick rundown,

Have a pc running XP, already joined to a domain.
The pc is moving labs and buildings and therefore we change the name to follow our building/room scheme. I can't simply rename it without removing it from the domain and rejoining it since it already has an account.

So, I remove it from the domain, restart, and realize I need to log in locally but never checked to see what the local account(s) were. Anyway to get into it? Trying to avoid a reinstall at all costs, XP blows..

Edit: These pc's are from the stoneage and therefore don't have our current admin user/pw that we use on all computers.

Remotely telnet into said computer as an domain admin (might have to re-enable telnet in remote computer management)

net user (someusername) (somepassword) /add
net localgroup Administrators (someusername) /add

That creates the (someusername) account on the local machine, and adds it to the administrators group.

in order to re-enable telnet wouldn't he have to login into the said machine :) ?

[theonlyski 3]

Quote

Quote

Quote

Quick rundown,

Have a pc running XP, already joined to a domain.
The pc is moving labs and buildings and therefore we change the name to follow our building/room scheme. I can't simply rename it without removing it from the domain and rejoining it since it already has an account.

So, I remove it from the domain, restart, and realize I need to log in locally but never checked to see what the local account(s) were. Anyway to get into it? Trying to avoid a reinstall at all costs, XP blows..

Edit: These pc's are from the stoneage and therefore don't have our current admin user/pw that we use on all computers.

Remotely telnet into said computer as an domain admin (might have to re-enable telnet in remote computer management)

net user (someusername) (somepassword) /add
net localgroup Administrators (someusername) /add

That creates the (someusername) account on the local machine, and adds it to the administrators group.

in order to re-enable telnet wouldn't he have to login into the said machine :) ?

If he is a domain admin, he can simply open computer management (or MMC with the CM snap-in) and connect to the remote machine. Then re-enable the telnet service.

I've had to do it several dozen times. Same story, old computer was added before the new default admin accounts were created. I could automate it, but it hasn't been pissing me off lately.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[Psychonaut 0]

Quote

If he is a domain admin, he can simply open computer management (or MMC with the CM snap-in) and connect to the remote machine. Then re-enable the telnet service.

I've had to do it several dozen times. Same story, old computer was added before the new default admin accounts were created. I could automate it, but it hasn't been pissing me off lately.

The PC isn't on the domain..

Stay high pull low

[Psychonaut 0]

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/ worked, thanks bwilling!

Stay high pull low

[theonlyski 3]

Ahh, I posted that when I was just waking up, didn't see that you already removed it from the domain... My bad.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[Fast 0]

Quote

I used this recently and was quite impressed.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Parted Magic not only had tools to reset passwords, it could read the files and the registry too.

This!

I have used this thing for a long time. It's free and has quite a few amazing tools on it. When you can't get a computer to boot past the windows logo before a BSOD cause of corrupted files, this solves the problem, lost password, solved, etc and so on.

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[IanHarrop 37]

Quote

Quote

I used this recently and was quite impressed.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Parted Magic not only had tools to reset passwords, it could read the files and the registry too.

This!

I have used this thing for a long time. It's free and has quite a few amazing tools on it. When you can't get a computer to boot past the windows logo before a BSOD cause of corrupted files, this solves the problem, lost password, solved, etc and so on.

+1

Great tool, have also used it for years. It has helped me solve many problems!

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[beowulf 1]

Quote

Quote

Why couldn't you just rename with out removing it from the domain??

I can do that all day long on my domain?

btw with out a valid admin account password you will need to hack the computer using something like ERD commander.

You can do that if the account wasn't already created, but it was.

Pinkfairy, I am one of the admins. Normally we would have a local admin account set on the PC's; we do that when we get new pc's in or mess with those already in the building; these however came from another building, we're using them as we're scrounging around for a few extra grad student computers.

I still don't understand. I have about 100 computers on my segment of the domain and they all have computer accounts. I can easily change the name of any of them without removing them from the Active Directory domain.

[Psychonaut 0]

Ever got the error of the account already existing?

Stay high pull low

[beowulf 1]

Not when changing a computer name and the name wasn't used by another computer.

If it were in use by another computer then you should get the same error when removing the computer from the domain and readding with the computer name that returned the error.

[regulator 0]

It has an account otherwise it couldnt be joined to the domain. If you dont have a copy of it I highly suggest ERD Commander. It will allow you to reset the local admin account without having to re-image.


sorry I just saw someone else suggest erd commander

[beowulf 1]

Right, but I don't understand why he isn't able to rename the computer with out removing it from the domain.

I have renamed computers many times with out removing them from the domain.

[regulator 0]

I am a network admin myself and I have renamed a multitude of computers without un-joining and re-joining to the domain...just have an ethernet cable to authenticate his credentials and use your domain admin account.

[Psychonaut 0]

This isn't a regular occurence, yes we usually just rename it, however this new account had already been created by the other admin in active directory. Let me rephrase this all tomorrow to make things clear

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